Jay Gaulard Blog

Twitter, Local Search, Cool Websites, Blogs and Web 2.0

Monday, May 26th, 2008

The simple dictionary definition of “Twitter” is “microblogging/social networking platform that places a 140- character limit on each individual post/tweet.” However, describing Twitter thusly would fail to encapsulate the power of this new omnipresent medium. So, instead here are 101 examples of how Twitter members regularly use the service.

Community Powered Local Search - This Could Actually Work

I found a site last night that claimed to be the “Easiest Local Search Ever”. My reaction to this: “Oh reeeaaallly.”

10 Cool Websites We Recommend

A list of 10 websites that are either useful or entertaining. Personal favorites: Cooking for Engineers (self-explanatory), thesixtyone (safari for music junkies), and Rentometer (save money on rent).

GigaOM Favs: 10 Blogs You Should Follow

Om Malik shares the comprised results of a twitter survey and personal contributions of his team members. The results are definitely useful!

Finally the definition of Web 2.0 & 3.0

One of the most misused buzzwords finally gets defined. Now we can stop people from labeling everything on the internet as Web 2.0. Please stop the madness.

Power Surge Blocks Access To Server?

Friday, May 23rd, 2008

Last night around 8PM, I heard the surge protectors/battery backups that we have for the computers beep. It’s the first time I heard that since we have been here. I am pretty used to it because they are rather sensitive. Any power fluctuation causes them to beep. It is comforting.

I didn’t think anything of it. Then, a little while later, I tried to access some websites that I have on one of my servers. I couldn’t get on. I tried again a little while later and still couldn’t get on. I asked Laura if she was able to get to the sites and she said no. She told me that she was working on one of them when she couldn’t get to it anymore. I figured the hosting company’s monitoring “red light” would’ve gone off by now and the server would be brought back on line by them. Nothing. I decided to submit a support ticket.

The hosting company responded to the support ticket informing me that they could access the server and all the sites just fine. I then called my sister down in Chapel Hill, NC to see if she could log on to the sites. She could access them just fine too. The strange thing is that I was able to see all the websites on my other server like nothing was wrong.

I responded to the hosting company ticket and let them know that I could not access the servers from only my location, but it seems like the rest of the world was looking at the sites without issue. I felt so left out. They asked me for my IP address so they could check the firewall. That was fine. Then, they asked me to do a traceroute to the server. I did that and the connection timed out at the server. Then, they did a traceroute from the server back to me, and the connection was timing out at my location.

This was all getting kind of odd. They asked that I power cycle the modem. I did and the problem was solved. I was able to access the server again.

What I find puzzling is that I was only blocked from one server in the world…mine. How did this happen. After thinking for a while, I remember right at the moment of the power hiccup, the issue began. Could being on a website at the time of a power surge (or failure) make your modem block you from the website (server) you were looking at?

Gaulard Web Services is Hiring - Writer Wanted

Saturday, May 17th, 2008

Well, you would actually be an independent contractor.

I already have two people helping me out these days. They manage all the websites, which is nice because it loosens me up to run the business. It has worked out very well so far. Now I need to take the next step. I am looking for someone (preferably an English major) who LOVES to write and do research. The main words are creativity and professionalism. This person must be able to write better than me, because if they can’t, I might as well do it all myself. I would love to read something this person writes and give them a pat on the back and say job well done. This person needs to be thinking about what they are going to write the next day while they are laying in bed falling asleep. Have you ever turned the light back on to take notes so you wouldn’t forget that great idea? Yeah, that’s what I’m talkin’ about.

If you don’t know me, I am going to let you in on a little secret. I am kind of hard to please. I do many things related to business myself and have gotten very good at them. It’s rare that I come across someone who knocks my socks off. When it comes to writing, I notice all the missing commas and off punctuation. It’s not easy noticing all this stuff, but that’s the way momma raised me.

Anyway, if you, or anyone you know is looking for some cold, hard cash and is an awesome writer, please let me know. You are going to need to send me samples of your work so I can look at them. It would be fantastic if you knew all about keywords and how to write for the web. It would also be fantastic if you were a marketing major (as well as an English major) who has experience with the web.

Buying and Selling Domain Names

Friday, March 21st, 2008

The more I look around, the more I learn that the domain name business is big business.

As I told you yesterday, I am trying to scoop up a bunch of different extensions for the domains I already have. It’s working out pretty well, but I have hit a little bump. I already bought up most of the available ones and now I have to enter the market of second (or third) hand domains. That is when it gets expensive.

Let me give you a little example…a guy called me a few years ago to offer a .com domain that he was selling. This was a hot name and he was looking for $50,000 for it. I almost started laughing when he told me that. I think I offered him $300 and went off and did something else. As it turns out, I am kicking myself. I have a feeling I am going to be seeing this domain in action soon because someone out in Las Vegas just purchased it at auction for $135,000. Why was, or is, it worth so much? Well, it was first registered in 1996, so it has some age. Also, it rolls off the tongue extremely easily and is two very powerful keywords. It’s also quite descriptive. Those things alone give it a lot of value. I talked to the seller last night and he mentioned that he does have another .com for sale that I would be interested in. He wants $50,000 for it. This one is definitely not worth what the other one was, but it does give me pause. Honestly, if you can get a well known .com that was born back in 1996, $50,000 is not too much. You do need to do a little research first.

Yesterday, I put a bunch of bids in for multiple .com and .net addresses. I did receive an email back telling me I could buy a .net for $2,688. I am going to have the name appraised today to see if it has been blacklisted or anything like that. I believe it was first registered back in 2002, which isn’t bad.

What’s the benefit of purchasing a used domain name? The answer is Google. Google likes “aged” domains. You can set up a site and not have to wait for Google’s aging filter to do its thing. Also, there may be links to the domain already. So basically, if you get a used domain, you could set up a site and have it indexed very quickly to start making money fast.

I am going to buy a few more today and then call it quits for a while. The guy I spoke to last night is also looking for $50,000 for a little known extension that will become very popular. This is for the same domain as I was talking about above.

What I do know is this…if I buy a bunch of these names now and sit on them for a few years and let them age, I can send them to auction and sell them for some $$$. From what I have been learning, I do have quite an investment already. Just remember…if you are going to get into this, you need to buy domains that people will actually want in a few years. I am not sure how many people would be interested in jaygaulard.com. There are also huge price variations with what the name consists of, like one word, two words, hyphens, etc…

Domain Name Ideas

Sunday, March 2nd, 2008

You may be aware that I have come up with some funky domain names in the past. I really don’t put all that much thought into them because my marketing doesn’t require catchy names. If I began marketing on television, perhaps I would ponder them for more than a day. Actually, back the day, “Google” and “Yahoo!” probably seems pretty silly.

I got an idea for another website this morning. I began my usual routine of coming up with a domain name. Then, I thought, “Why don’t I do a search for a website that gives ideas for just this?” So I did. I searched Google for “domain name ideas.” The first result was the “Domain Name Generator” at makewords.com. I messed around with it for a little while and got some ideas. I am not sure I am going to use any of them, but by using this website, you can see what is still available and what’s not. You can also do some in depth research on any domain name.

I just thought I would share this with you. No thank yous necessary.

Today Certainly is Another Day

Friday, February 29th, 2008

Today was another busy day. I spent a good majority of the day organizing things online. I would tell you what they are, but I have this thing about telling people my secrets. Oh well. I will say that I find it simply amazing that I am able to wake up every morning of my life and work on the computer for at least eight hours straight. Mind you, those are the days I have nothing to do. Oh, I just love looking at the clock as it reads 3PM and realizing that I have been sitting here since 7AM.

As I get older, I find myself focusing on my “physical” self more than I used to. I always try to sit up straight in my chair, so I don’t get a bad posture, like I have been warned about when I was a kid. I also recognize that I need exercise these days. When I say need, I mean “need.” I mean, I am in good shape, but as anyone gets older, I think they become more aware of these things. I also feel my eyes going to hell. When I was a kid, I used to pride myself on not wearing glasses. Well, the years of staring at this monitor has taken its toll, I’m afraid. Last year, I bought computer glasses to help take the strain off my eyes. These days, I find myself having to focus a heck of a lot more. I can actually feel my eyes getting tired. People say that you should get up every so often to give your eyes a break. They say that you should look out the window every once in a while so your eyes can focus on something else, other than your computer screen. I do that, but I am just hoping that one day I will make enough money to pay someone to do my work for me as I sit in a chair behind them, telling them what to do.

So, what’s new in life…I guess it’s just day to day stuff. As I work, the cats take their turns using my lap as their bed. I am not working on adding any more websites to my portfolio…well, I had to pop a new one in there, I just couldn’t help myself. This is the year of marketing. I haven’t focused on that portion of the business all that much in the past few years, so it might be something I should do to boost the $$$. I believe I can do a very good job with that in the next ten months.

I also have been making beer, if you haven’t noticed. I think it’s a pretty rewarding thing to do. Paul came over to pick up ten bottles for a party he is having tomorrow. He is going to get back to me with the consensus. I hope he likes them.

Since I have been in college, I have been looking for the perfect place to live. Where we are living now isn’t perfect, by any meaning of the word. As my mother would say, we have decided to hate it. It’s painful to realize that, but it’s true. I have learned that it’s pretty useless looking on the internet for that perfect town. All it takes is one lousy picture of a town to ruin everything. On to the next perfect town with that one lousy picture, and so on. I think the only way I am going to make it is to get an “anchor” house somewhere up north, with another smaller home in the heat for weekends in the Winter. I have also learned that the perfect town may not even exist anymore. Back in the day, there was a quiet little main street somewhere in Indiana that you could walk up and down for the rest of your life. Now, you have to worry about tornadoes and the Wal-Mart they are putting up at the end of the block. You might think I’m kidding, but look around. The most pristine places are very unaffordable. So the quest goes on.

On Monday, Laura and I are making a trip to Washington, CT. We are going to have lunch at the Mayflower Inn. A few years ago, my mother got us a gift certificate for the Inn that we used for a perfect Valentine’s Day dinner. It was one of the nicest places on earth. We were thrilled with the little antique town, but it was kind of dark on our way in. We really want to see it during the day. You would be surprised what the Connecticut hills have to offer, for a price. I’ll let you know how it goes. YouTube certainly needs a video or two of Washington, CT.

It just started snowing. Laura proposed another walk in the snow. Who am I to say no? I have a feeling I will be putting my boots on at midnight again. I do want to say that I am getting a little tired of the snow. Every time I think the driveway will be clear for a few days, it snows. I admit that it keeps things exciting, but enough already. It’s been a snowy Winter. The next week looks warmer with the temperatures above freezing. Also, the sunset is much later now, so that January depression has lifted. Now, the sun is going down close to 6PM. In March, we set the clocks ahead, so that should be fun. I am going to try to really soak up the seasons this Spring, Summer and Fall. I think they are worth it.

Wow, what a post. This might actually be what blogs are for. I guess I have to write some real stuff when I am not busy buying things and writing about them. Hey look…it’s another cat on my lap. I think they are doing laps now. This one is Sexy Boo.

Managed Server Update

Friday, January 18th, 2008

So I broke through to support today. After days and says of no response, I actually got through to an American who knew what to do. If you aren’t familiar with what I am talking about, please read about it.

I first called Sales. I thought that if anyone would answer the phone at a miserable hosting company, Sales would…and they did. Hey, you always have to have enough people to take the money, right? I told the guy that I wanted to cancel my contract for the server because I couldn’t run a company like this. He got quiet and transferred me to the Philippines. The freaking Philippines…AGAIN!!! I am telling you, when you have a real problem, the best person to talk to is one in the Philippines. Yeah, right. I challenge you to find me one person on the planet who likes their customer service coming from the Philippines. Again, they had no idea what I was talking about but actually transferred me to a living, breathing American server technician. The strange thing is that while I was talking to him, I heard all sorts of commotion going on in the background. It was other support techs talking on the telephone. What was this? How did they get through? Do they have the good phone number? I have the regular customer support number as well as the managed server number. I thought I was golden…guess not.

I talked to the tech for a little while, when he put me on hold. While I was on hold, I was downloading some configuration files from the server. I need them for when I transfer the websites over. All of the sudden, the websites started working again. Do you want to know what he did? He restarted Apache. Gee, I think that is what I have been trying to tell this company to do all week. Apparently, when I was optimizing that huge database, the temp directory became very full. The temp directory only holds about 200MBs and the database was over 750MBs. The optimizing filled up the temp directory and locked up the server. Restarting Apache and cleaning out the temp directory is no big deal, but what good is a company if you can’t get in touch with them to get it done?

I have to say, this hosting company has awesome equipment and really great prices. If they only had awesome support, I would be with them forever. That is such a waste.

I called my new hosting company today to have them set up another server over there. Now, let me tell you why I am with this company…they are the IT provider for some pretty serious companies, like Bluetooth, Motorola, Webmail.us, etc… They have managed backup that is real, they have server monitoring, their support is simply fan-freakin-tastic and their equipment is great. Can you tell that I am happy? The new server should be set up by Monday afternoon. This will make five servers in total, but before you think I am crazy, I want to let you know that I will be skinnying them down to just two over time. With this kind of company, I can afford to have more sites on fewer servers. Also, I am having them locate the servers in separate datacenters in different areas of the country, just in case something goes wrong with one datacenter.

So, I guess I know what I am doing next week.

Google, Internet, Tables and Bloggers

Saturday, November 17th, 2007

Google offers API for Outlook migration to Gmail

Google took a giant step on Friday to make it easier for companies to migrate any e-mail system over to Google Apps Gmail by offering an E-mail Migration API targeted at corporate developers and e-mail administrators.

Become an Internet Legend in Your Free Time: Tips from Internet Celebrities

“The Internet moves very fast,” says Gary “Numa Numa” Brolsma. “Your video has to be funny, or get to the point, very quickly. People are clicking all the time. If you don’t hook people in the first 15 seconds, they’ll move on.”

Top 30 websites that still are using tables as layout structure

You won´t believed how many they are. Some of then are your daily web routine. Stop hunting those IE CSS tricks and bring back your Frontpage 98 my friend designer, we are still in web 0.8889

How Top Bloggers Really Promote their Websites

Simple question: “If you had 2-hours a day to devote to no-cost, off-blog (even off-line) marketing for your blog, what would you do?” I posed this very question to a collection of some of the world’s top bloggers and social network marketers…and here’s what they revealed.

15 Unreasonably Useful Websites

A list of 15 websites that are either useful or entertaining.

Please Update Your Links

Friday, November 16th, 2007

Hi there,

If you have ever linked to me at http://www.gaulard.com/blog/, please be ever so kind as to update your link to http://www.jaygaulard.com/blog/. It would be greatly appreciated.

It is getting a little depressing logging into the admin portion of this blog to see there are no links to it.

Thank you,

Jay G.

Google, Digg, Facebook and Being Social

Thursday, November 8th, 2007

Google’s “Nofollow” Rule

The “nofollow” tag, when added to a link, prevents Google from counting the link as such a “recommendation”, thus not providing any search ranking benefits to the site being linked to.

Rumor: Digg close to a $300 million sale

Digg is close to announcing its sale to a major media player for $300 million to $400 million, according to sources close to the company.

Report: Google Organizing Less Than 0.02% of the World’s Information

The later study estimated that between 3,416,281 TB and 5,609,121 TB were produced in 2002, so there was a ~19% annual growth rate between ‘99 and ‘02. Assuming the same growth rate to present, somewhere between 6,869,341 TB and 11,278,629 TB of new information were produced in 2006. There were only 1085 Terabytes Organized by Google Last Year.

Facebook to Turn Users Into Endorsers

Facebook now will give advertisers the ability to create their own profile pages on its system that will let users identify themselves as fans of a product.

The Social Enterprise - What Works, and What Doesn’t

Why should enterprises go social, and what are the compelling reasons for adoption?